


Sketching Hearts Out

by Harvestasya



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 04:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harvestasya/pseuds/Harvestasya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a simple sketch, but it ended up being a lot more than that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sketching Hearts Out

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long while since I wrote something fandom-related, so please forgive my rusty writing. I hope you'll enjoy it, though! A big thanks to a friend for helping me with the title.  
> [sighs loudly] I love KonoEne.

"Konoha, you can draw?"

Lips pursed for a moment, before they opened half way, as the cyber girl let out a small gasp of surprise. The call rightfully caught his attention, and hearing her, Konoha immediately directed his eyes on the cellphone lying down by his side, letting go of the pen he was holding, a blank look displayed on his face as usual. Ene had to admit, she had expected anyone doing this. Anyone but him.  
Ordinarily, the one who would have settled on the table was Mary, happily humming one of Momo's songs while she was surrounded by oil crayons of various colors she would use to make portraits of the members of the Mekakushi Dan; though she was pretty embarrassed by it, the drawings themselves being really reminiscent of what a child would draw. That was usually why she was hiding her creations, but there was this one time not so long ago where Shintaro had stumbled upon one of them. Almost too naturally, the quarter Medusa had broken down crying, her whimpering voice layered over the sound of Kano's loud laughter, while Seto was desperately trying to calm her down. Despite the ruckus, she never witnessed Konoha paying attention to that even once...and his sudden interest for this surprised her to no end.

Myriads of ideas, questions, theories were rushing through her head, when one suddenly struck her, almost too brutally. Now that she was thinking of it, the formulation she wanted to use earlier for her question wasn't exactly the correct one. It wasn't _"can you draw?"_ but rather _"do you remember you can draw?"_. Obviously, her heart had already done the calculations, and bolted racing at the very second the idea crossed her mind. But she knew, perhaps too well, that he wouldn't understand. Once again she had hoped, perhaps a little too much, that maybe, just maybe, he would have recovered a part of his memories. _'You're always waiting for miracles, for things that will never happen, Takane.'_ Her heart wouldn't stop thumping. This was bad...

"Uh...yeah. I think."

Brought out of her ramblings by the sound of the albino's voice, her eyes raised to meet up with his own. A pair of light red irises, in which almost no light dwelled. No affection. Nothing. She bit her lip, unconsciously. This, just this, made her realize how far Haruka was now. There were similarities, yes. He was a lot more airheaded, but he still was a clumsy dork. He was the spitting image of his online avatar. But no matter what she was telling herself, it wasn't Haruka, not the one she knew. He was standing there, but it wasn’t the same. She had lost the only opportunity she had to tell him how she felt, and more importantly, she had lost him. And she didn't know whether she would ever find him again. To him, she was just a stranger. The girl let out a loud sigh, and her traits distorted into a pout, resulting in an expression at miles from those Ene would make - and much more closer to how her former self would act.

"Is there anything wrong?" Konoha inquired, blinking. "You're making a weird face."  
"No, no, I'm okay! Hey, hey, what are you drawing?" she hurriedly replied, recovering her regular cheery tone, and thus fixing her mistake the best way she could.  
"I...don't know. I haven't even started..."

His glance retreated to the blank sheet of paper he was sitting in front of. Despite his everlasting deadpan look, the virus could feel something close to disarray, perhaps worry coming from him. Was he anxious? It definitely seemed like this was troubling him. It was a side of the boy she had never seen. She looked away once more; as concern started to nibble on her heart as well, that heart which didn’t stop racing since earlier. _’Ahh, shut it, shut it already!’_ she thought to herself. But still, this was bothersome. Not to mention, they were all alone inside of the headquarters. Seto was off to his workplace, Kido was making errands, and Kano…was being Kano and left for who-knew-where-exactly. As for Momo, she had taken Mary and Hibiya to the park, dragging her brother at the same time. How could she fix this? How? She silently huffed, frustrated, and – just like that, a grin showed up on her features. She had an idea. A good one, at that. Perhaps a bit selfish, too…but who cared.

“Hey, Konoha! Could you draw me?” she asked, as innocently as possible.

The android stared at her for a little while, seemingly lost, before tilting his head to the side.

“Y-yeah…” he mused, sounding unsure of his skills. “I’m…gonna try.”

He immediately picked up his pen, and started scribbling, diligent, under Ene’s watchful gaze. Lines and sketches crossed, black layered over white. The sound of grating paper made itself more and more noticeable, as the boy was deeply entangled in a trance-like state, not unlike those she would find her former classmate caught into. A light smile drew itself upon her lips; this was bringing back so many memories. Memories of when she was still Takane. Memories of the time she had spent with him, of the time she met Ayano and the one who would become her always annoying and boring master, memories of the school festival. Images of the school festival, the game they had made together, of his immobile silhouette, of the hospital room he was lying in, of her body disappearing; old images gone bad and faded, but still as vivid as ever.

“Ene…?”

She raised her head, facing the albino who was poking the screen with the tip of his finger, frowning. Was there something wrong? She couldn’t help but wonder.

“What is it?”

He seemed to be panicking for a moment, blubbering words beyond her understanding, before he picked up the cellphone, his hand shaking, and made it face the artwork.  
And that’s when she saw.

She saw his drawing, which eerily diverged from her expectations. Her digital legs were the same, her azure jacket was there, the little things on her cheeks as well. But her hair – her hair was completely different. Instead of the usual blue tint her pigtails had, the ones on the picture were…jet black. _Just like Takane’s._

"I'm sorry, I...got the color wrong,” he whimpered, looking down, eyes fixated on the canvas. “I got carried away..."  
"It's okay! It's okay, Konoha!" she swiftly reassured him, "It's a...nice change! It looks great."

It took him a little while to react, but soon enough, words flew away from his mouth.

“…I’m glad you like it…”

And, for once, Konoha did something she had barely seen him do before: he smiled. A bright, bright smile, as warm as the evening sun, just like the ones Haruka would sport back then. A smile that herself, too, reciprocated.

_It looks great, Haruka. Thank you. Thank you so much._


End file.
